It’s time we ask ourselves, why are Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Mitch McConnell (Kentucky) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) pretending to be Republicans? They are no more Republicans than Josef Goebbels was a conservative-libertarian Southern Baptist.

You will immediately observe that I omitted party affiliation for those cited above; that’s because despite their masquerading as Republicans, they are the furthest thing from the Party of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump. They are betrayers of everything we as Republicans stand for, and their voting records prove it.

McConnell, in the image and likeness of the late Sen. John McCain, was seen shaking hands with Democrats – exchanging “well-dones and atta’ boys” after he voted against Peter Hegseth for secretary of defense.

This is not a new phenomenon. Tragically, it has become a commonplace for Republicans to back-stab We the People on issues that are important to us and betray us on legislation we approve of and support.

Together, the three of them have become dependable Democrat votes in opposition to President Trump. The House of Representatives, likewise, is not without its dependable other-side-of-the-aisle Democrat supporters.

Add to the senators I reference, Lindsey “Goober” Graham (South Carolina) and the result is that they are progressive Democrats masquerading as pachyderms for the sake of getting elected – which causes me to evaluate if they are Republicans solely for the sake of that goal.

As Tia Yang and Cooper Burton wrote, Jan. 29, 2024:

While Senate Democrats were extremely unified last year, Republican senators were more freethinking, agreeing with the president anywhere from 5 to 71 percent of the time (though most voted with Biden less than 25 percent of the time). Interestingly, Republicans who have been in office longer voted with Biden at a slightly higher rate than those who are newer to the Senate. GOP senators who have been elected four or more times agreed with Biden a median of 28 percent of the time, while Republican senators who have been elected only once (or not at all**) agreed with him a median of 10 percent of the time. That’s likely because the senators who have been around longer hail from a time when the Senate was more bipartisan and are often more willing to work with Democrats. Many of the newer GOP Senate recruits are more conservative and have been less open to compromise.

Three Republicans in particular weren’t afraid to cross the aisle last year: Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. All three voted with Biden more than half of the time, with most of that agreement happening on nomination votes. Collins and Murkowski have long been seen as among the most moderate Republicans in the Senate and often make headlines for breaking with their party on consequential votes. While Graham is ordinarily quite conservative when it comes to legislation, he’s said before that he believes presidents should be given broad deference to choose their judicial and executive branch nominees, and he voted to confirm the majority of Biden’s picks last year.

Why should We the People tolerate Murkowski? She voted to back 12 of Biden’s nominees, all of whom real Republicans opposed in 2021, according to Alaska Public Media. She voted with Biden approximately 64% of the time in 2023, according to ABC News. Yet she opposes President Trump’s nominees.

Bipartisanship has not helped you and me, as citizens. It has, however, massively rewarded the politicians who are able to sell, swap and trade their souls for financial/material gain, under the guise of a cohesive government voting as one to further the interest of We the People. That’s a crock of manure and they know it.

Supporting President Trump’s nominees isn’t an imbroglio. Support for his nominees is showing respect to the leader of our party who received a clear mandate from We the People when we reelected him Nov. 5, 2024.

It is long past time for us to primary hacks and sell-outs such as those referenced here. It is time for us to hold the elected claiming to be Republicans accountable.

We should not accept “mostly conservative.” That’s an oxymoron.

Our nation is hanging by a thread. The world is a heartbeat away from experiencing a nuclear winter. Thanks to Biden being Obama’s sock-puppet assigned the task of undermining global stability, we have the resurgence of Muslim terrorist groups.

We have a strong leader with a clear vision, in President Trump. We need men and women we elect to stand with us in support of President Trump’s pledge to the people of America.

If elected lawmakers resist and/or refuse, we must fire them and elect those who will. If these are willing to betray us and impede President Trump, think what they will be emboldened to do when President Trump leaves office.

Just one of the big moves President Donald Trump, and his administration, took on Monday was the shutdown of USAID, the government agency that for years has been handing out billions of American taxpayer dollars to other nations.

The closure happened when the administration ordered the agency’s headquarters closed down and told employees not to report.

Its exact future isn’t known at this point, but later in the day Secretary of State Marco Rubio reportedly was named acting administrator.

While bureaucrats fumed and leftists claimed the action would cause incalculable injury, Trump’s press office, with no fanfare, released a stunning list of the offensive projects that USAID had its hands, and American tax dollars, in.

Such as the “millions” that went to EcoHealth Alliance, the organization involved in research at the Wuhan, China, lab from which the China virus, COVID-19, likely emerged to kill millions around the globe.

Then there were payments for “hundreds of thousands” of meals … for al-Qaida-affiliated fighters in Syria.

And the projects seemed beneficial – irrigation canals, farming equipment and fertilizers – but it was in support of an “unprecedented poppy cultivation and heroin production in Afghanistan,” which benefited the Taliban.

Then there were “personalized” contraceptives for around the globe.

“For decades, the United States Agency for International Development has been unaccountable to taxpayers as it funnels massive sums of money to the ridiculous =– and, in many cases, malicious – pet projects of entrenched bureaucrats, with next-to-no oversight,” the White House said.

Other examples of “waste and fraud”:

• $1.5 million to “advance diversity equity and inclusion in Serbia’s workplaces and business communities”
• $70,000 for production of a “DEI musical” in Ireland
• $2.5 million for electric vehicles for Vietnam
• $47,000 for a “transgender opera” in Colombia
• $32,000 for a “transgender comic book” in Peru
• $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala
• “Tourism” in Egypt got $6 million.
• And there was funding of “hundreds of thousands of dollars” for a “nonprofit linked to designated terrorist organizations – even AFTER an inspector general launched an investigation.”

‘Criminal organization’: USAID headquarters locked down, workers told to stay away

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—A watchdog group is asking Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to revoke the security clearance of Reid Hoffman, a major Democratic donor who had ties to the now-deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and bankrolled litigation against President Donald Trump.

Peter Flaherty, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center sent the letter to Hegseth on Monday about Hoffman, a tech billionaire who has the security clearance as a member of the Defense Innovation Board, a federal advisory committee, from the Biden administration.

Hoffman is no longer a member of the board, but maintains a security clearance, which allows him access to certain government information and also provides eligibility to be on future government boards related to national security.

“We believe that Mr. Hoffman has demonstrated reckless and bad judgment and is not someone the federal government should be involved with,” Flaherty told The Daily Signal. He added, “It’s a shame that Mr. Hoffman has not used his significant fortune to do some good, rather than engage in dirty tricks that undermine democratic norms.”

Hoffman is a cofounder of LinkedIn, and after selling the social media company to Microsoft is on the Microsoft board of directors. So, the letter also cautions the Department of Defense to evaluate government contracts with Microsoft. Hoffman has a net worth of $2.6 billion, according to Forbes.

“We write to request that you lift the security clearance of Reid Hoffman, who until recently was a member of the Defense Innovation Board, a federal advisory committee,” Flaherty’s letter to Hegseth says. “Furthermore, we ask that Mr. Hoffman’s continued membership on the Microsoft board of directors be raised in any contract discussions between the department and the company,”

Microsoft did not reply to inquiries from The Daily Signal for this article on Friday and Monday.

“While we do not believe that the Department should determine the membership of the boards of contractors, Mr. Hoffman presents an egregious case for the reasons detailed herein,” the letter continues. “Simply put, the United States government should not do business with any company on whose board Hoffman serves.”

The letter says Hoffman “pursued and sustained relationships, and maintained professional partnerships to benefit mutual interests” with Epstein, a New York financier convicted on sex trafficking.

The Wall Street Journal first reported that Hoffman worked with Epstein to raise money for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2015. Hoffman later reportedly invited Epstein to a 2015 dinner in Palo Alto, Calif., with other wealthy tech company owners Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Peter Thiel.

In 2019, Hoffman apologized for associating with Epstein, stating: “I helped to repair his reputation and perpetuate injustice. For this, I am deeply regretful.”

Last month, Hoffman reiterated to The Sunday Times of London that he “went to no Epstein parties,” and said any suggestion he did was false. He also claimed he had threats to his life and had increased security after Musk suggested in an interview last year that Hoffman was among those who were worried a future Trump administration would release the information on Epstein’s associates.

The letter notes that Hoffman has called Trump the “disease president” and financed several dark- money political operations.

The letter further noted that through one of his nonprofits, “Hoffman has secretly paid the legal bills for Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll, who sued him for defamation over her allegations of rape against him.” A New York jury sided with Carroll, but Trump has appealed the case.

In 2023, a Hoffman philanthropic and political adviser Dmitri Mehlhorn said in a published statement that Hoffman “had no prior knowledge” that an independent group he funded chose to finance Carroll’s case. Mehlhorn noted the money that funded Carroll’s lawsuit was made through an unidentified organization that independently chooses various legal cases to finance.

NEWS to @PuckNews —

Dmitri Mehlhorn, philanthropic and political adviser to @ReidHoffman, responds to the accusation from Donald Trump’s team today that the Hoffman team has financially supported Jean Carroll in her lawsuit against Trump. pic.twitter.com/udlqVPEBq4

— Teddy Schleifer (@teddyschleifer) April 13, 2023

The Daily Signal contacted a spokesperson for Hoffman at the domain ReidHoffman.org, listed as the press release contact for Hoffman’s artificial intelligence company ManasAI. The Daily Signal also reached out to Greylock, a company where Hoffman is a partner. Neither responded by publication time.

The National Legal and Policy Center letter to Hegseth was also sent to White House chief of staff Susie Wiles; Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss.; and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala. The Microsoft board of directors was also sent the letter.

A Defense Department spokesperson told The Daily Signal the department does not discuss security clearances.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

President Donald Trump is withdrawing America support, again, from the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, according to a Politico report.

He also is pausing funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency that was set up specifically to give money to Palestinians, an organization that was revealed to have had employees take part in the Oct. 7, 2024, terror attack by Hamas on Israel.

The publication said it obtained a document outlining the plans.

The moves are like what President Trump did during his first term in office, from 2016-2020.

The HRC long has faced accusations that it gives cover to governments with human rights abuses,

The report explained UNRWA is the “main agency” giving money to the population in Gaza, where Hamas has ruled for years already.

Several staff members were dismissed by the U.N. when it was revealed they may have been involved in the Oct. 7 terror.

The report said a fact sheet from the White House said the Human Rights Council “has not fulfilled its purpose and continues to be used as a protective body for countries committing horrific human rights violations.”

Specifically, the council’s repeated attacks on Israel were condemned.

“The UNHRC has demonstrated consistent bias against Israel, focusing on it unfairly and disproportionately in council proceedings. In 2018, the year President Trump withdrew from the UNHRC in his first administration, the organization passed more resolutions condemning Israel than Syria, Iran, and North Korea combined,” the document explained.

President Trump’s order is reported to require Secretary of State Marco Rubio to review and report to the White House “which international organizations, conventions, or treaties that ‘promote radical or anti-American sentiment,’ with a particular focus on UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.”

That division of the U.N. lost American support several years ago over an anti-Israel bias.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a series of steps Monday afternoon to stem the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., thus receiving a 30-day pause in tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.

“I just had a good call with President Trump,” Trudeau said on X.

“Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan – reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl. Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.

“In addition, Canada is making new commitments to appoint a Fentanyl Czar, we will list cartels as terrorists, ensure 24/7 eyes on the border, launch a Canada-U.S. Joint Strike Force to combat organized crime, fentanyl and money laundering. I have also signed a new intelligence directive on organized crime and fentanyl and we will be backing it with $200 million.

“Proposed tariffs will be paused for at least 30 days while we work together.”

Trump also commented on the deal, indicating: “Canada has agreed to ensure we have a secure Northern Border, and to finally end the deadly scourge of drugs like Fentanyl that have been pouring into our Country, killing hundreds of thousands of Americans, while destroying their families and communities all across our Country.”

“As President, it is my responsibility to ensure the safety of ALL Americans, and I am doing just that. I am very pleased with this initial outcome, and the Tariffs announced on Saturday will be paused for a 30 day period to see whether or not a final Economic deal with Canada can be structured. FAIRNESS FOR ALL!”

Is the news we hear every day actually broadcasting messages from God? The answer is an absolute yes! Find out how!

Earlier Monday, Trump announced Mexico has agreed to send thousands of its troops to help secure its border with America in exchange for a temporary pause in tariffs on its products.

“I just spoke with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

“It was a very friendly conversation wherein she agreed to immediately supply 10,000 Mexican Soldiers on the Border separating Mexico and the United States.

“These soldiers will be specifically designated to stop the flow of fentanyl, and illegal migrants into our Country.

“We further agreed to immediately pause the anticipated tariffs for a one month period during which we will have negotiations headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, and Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and high-level Representatives of Mexico.

“I look forward to participating in those negotiations, with President Sheinbaum, as we attempt to achieve a ‘deal’ between our two Countries.”

Follow Joe on Twitter @JoeKovacsNews

Mexico caves to Trump in trade war: Sending 10,000 troops to border for pause in tariffs

One of the most expensive green energy projects ever undertaken in American history looks like it is now on borrowed time after eating up massive amounts of taxpayer dollars and killing thousands of birds.

Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) — a major utility company — announced in January that it is terminating power purchase contracts with the owners of Southwestern California’s Ivanpah Solar Power facility, a massive and unique solar project that received hundreds of millions of subsidy dollars as it launched in 2014. Just over a decade after it started operations, the facility appears to be headed toward its demise after killing thousands of birds because it could not provide the utility sufficiently cheap energy.

“PG&E determined that ending the agreements at this time will save customers money,” the company said in its Jan. 17 statement on the plant. The original owners of the plant — which cost about $2.2 billion to build — included Google and NRG Energy, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The Los Angeles Times reported in 2016 that the Ivanpah project killed an average of 6,000 birds each year, with some of the unlucky creatures colliding with the development’s 40-story towers and others being incinerated instantly upon flying through concentrated sunlight while chasing prey. The project received tax breaks, a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the Obama Department of Energy (DOE) and a further $535 million subsidy from the Obama Department of Transportation (DOT), but it failed to reach advertised power output levels, according to analysis by Benjamin Zycher, an energy-focused senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

“Ivanpah Solar Generating Station Units 1 & 3, two of the three units of the 386 [megawatt] facility located in the Mojave Desert, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy, have finalized negotiations with PG&E to terminate their two long-term purchase power agreements, which will provide significant savings for California ratepayers,” a spokesperson for NRG said in a statement shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“The concentrating solar power project was an innovative public-private partnership uniting government entities with private business in the advancement of renewable energy. When the power purchase agreements were signed in 2009, the prices were competitive, but advancements over time in photovoltaics and battery storage have led to more efficient, cost effective and flexible options for producing reliable clean energy. Once deactivated, the units will be decommissioned so that the site can potentially be repurposed for more conventional renewable energy production.”

Other than causing numerous bird deaths, the redirected concentrated sunlight that is central to the project’s operation almost caused a severe problem when a misalignment led to that concentrated energy being focused on the wrong part of a tower, resulting in a small fire that forced the closure of the plant for several hours. Moreover, the project also gave off a glare strong enough to affect the vision of pilots flying far overhead.

The project, which was built to reduce emissions and provide energy from a non-fossil fuel source, also used considerable quantities of natural gas to operate, according to UtilityDive. In fact, the Ivanpah solar project used enough natural gas in 2014 to qualify for California’s cap-and-trade emissions program, but it was not covered by the policy because the gas it burned at night to keep itself running was not counted toward its allowance for fossil fuel use.

In 2016, local California news outlet The Press-Enterprise reported that emissions from the facility’s natural gas use increased by nearly 50% in 2015, and that the plant’s gas consumption through the first three quarters of 2016 was up 7% relative to the same time period in the year prior.

Google did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

The New Zealand Parliament has granted personhood to a mountain — just as it had previously granted such status to a river and a piece of land. Meanwhile, an entire group of human beings in the nation is not afforded that same respect.

Induced abortion — the direct and intentional act of killing a preborn child — is legal for any reason through 20 weeks of pregnancy in New Zealand and does not have to be committed by a doctor or in a licensed facility. After 20 weeks, an abortion can still be carried out if a health practitioner believes the abortion is necessary after consultation with another health practitioner, including a midwife, nurse practitioner, or registered nurse. Human beings who are alive yet undelivered are not treated as legal persons in the country.

However, Mount Taranaki, now to be known as Taranaki Maunga, its Māori name, is considered an ancestor by Indigenous people and was recognized as a legal person on Thursday, following the enactment of a new law that granted the mountain all the rights of a human being. A newly created group of four members of the local Māori iwi, or tribes, in addition to four persons appointed by the country’s Conservation Minister, will serve as “the face and voice” of the mountain.

The mountain is “a living and indivisible whole” and includes Taranaki Maunga and its surrounding areas, “incorporating all their physical and metaphysical elements,” according to law. The legal rights bestowed on it are meant to uphold its health and wellbeing.

“The mountain has long been an honored ancestor, a source of physical, cultural and spiritual sustenance and a final resting place,” Paul Goldsmith, the lawmaker responsible for the settlements between the government and Māori tribes, told Parliament in a speech on Thursday.

According to CNN, in 1840, Māori tribes signed a treaty with representatives of the British crown, which ensured Māori would keep their land and resources. But in 1865, some of that land, including the mountain, was taken by the British in response to a Māori rebellion against the Crown, pushing Māori out of having a say in the mountain.

Now, giving the mountain “personhood” is said to be an acknowledgment of these past wrongs and an agreement to right those wrongs.

“Today, Taranaki, our maunga, our maunga tupuna, is released from the shackles, the shackles of injustice, of ignorance, of hate,” said Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, a co-leader of the political party Te Pāti Māori and a descendant of the Taranaki tribes, using a phrase that means ancestral mountain.

While the mountain’s new legal rights will prevent sales, restore Māori traditional uses, and protect conservation efforts, preborn human children in New Zealand are still denied their personhood and their right to life.

There’s a serious ethical concern when a government determines a mountain to be “a living and indivisible whole,” yet denies that living human beings are persons and fails to protect the rights of the most innocent members of its society.

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Live Action News.]

The U.S. Supreme Court is lining up to decide whether abortion profiteers can demand that they be allowed to participate in tax-funded programs like Medicaid – even after state officials determine they are not qualified.

It is the ADF that said it has submitted its opening brief to the high court in the Medina v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic case in which lower courts said that officials in South Carolina are not allowed to direct Medicaid funding, that money intended to help low-income individuals get needed medical help – away from abortion industry representatives like Planned Parenthood.

“Taxpayer dollars should never be used to fund facilities that make a profit off abortion,” said John Bursch, a lawyer for ADF.

“State officials should be free to determine that Planned Parenthood and other entities that peddle abortion are not qualified to receive taxpayer funding through Medicaid. Congress did not create a right for Medicaid recipients to drag states into federal court to challenge those decisions. Nor did Congress intend for federal courts to second guess states’ decisions about which providers are qualified to receive Medicaid funding.”

The state of South Carolina had determined that Planned Parenthood’s abortion business components were not qualified to get tax money under the state’s Medicaid, but a federal district court and then the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed.

ADF said the case could decide whether states like South Carolina are allowed to direct the aid program’s money.

“The Medicaid Act is not a civil-rights statute. It is a program that anticipates cooperative federalism—‘federal and state actors working together … to carry out the statute’s aims.’ Unsurprisingly, the Act focuses on that relationship between the states and the federal government—not the creation of individual healthcare rights,” the brief informs the justices.

“To hold otherwise would encroach upon the executive and legislative branches’ prerogatives while increasing the cost to the states of providing medical care to their neediest citizens.”

Medicaid was created in 1965 as a federal-state cooperative giving medical assistance to the needy. It provides that patients can obtain help from any “qualified” provider.

This fight developed when patient Julie Edwards, getting Medicaid benefits, obtained treatment at Planned Parenthood and wanted to continue going there.

However, the governor said through an executive order that the state Health Department could no longer consider Planned Parenthood “qualified.”

Planned Parenthood sued to keep getting paid under Medicaid.